Page 91 of Parrish

Chapter Thirty

Jack Parrish

I left the hospital feeling lighter than I had in a very long time and all because I got a dose of sunshine. It wasn’t a hopeless situation. Deep inside the shell of the woman who couldn’t place me as her husband, lied the woman who gave her life to me.

We had a long road ahead of us, but we weren’t finished. As long as we were both breathing, the author would continue to scribe our story.

Hallelujah!

“You look…different,” Lacey comments as she lifts a glass to her lips.

I could say the same about her. The girl looks even more ragged than she did after the arraignment. She also looks like she dropped a couple of pounds—not something she should be doing when she’s pregnant.

“I take it since you’re bringing Danny to the hospital, things are looking up for Reina?” she prods, placing the glass on the table.

“We had a good morning. Made some progress, and she wants to see him,” I supply, taking a step closer to her. I pull out the nearest chair and flip it around. Straddling the back, I take a seat and narrow my eyes at her. “I’m sorry I’ve been MIA the last few days.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

“It’s fine,” she replies, glancing around her kitchen. “It was easier to bring Danny home with me than travel back and forth to Brooklyn. If you don’t mind, I’d like him to stay with me until Reina comes home from the hospital and you two settle in.”

“Whatever works for you,” I say with a nod. “I’m feeling better too so I can take him at night. Give you a break.”

“I don’t need a break and I kind of like the company,” she says. I see through her defenses and a pang of guilt hits me. The last three days I’ve been spiraling out of control. One minute I’m holding a gun to my head, the next I’m crying to my therapist. I’m fucked and so is my daughter. Before she’s the one standing on the edge trying to ease her pain, I need to intervene.

“I spoke to Schwartz,” I reveal. “He told me what happened at the arraignment.”

At that she abruptly pushes back her chair and rises to her feet. Snatching the glass off the table, she brings it to the sink and begins to wash it.

“Lacey.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Look at me,” I order.

She shuts the tap and bows her head.

“Schwartz is going to get him off. It’s only a matter of time before this whole mess sorts itself out and he comes home,” I tell her as I close the distance between us and drape my arm around her trembling shoulders. She pries herself out of my arms and turns to face me. Angrily she wipes her tears and the words that come next shock me.

“Maybe I don’t want him to come home,” she hollers. “Maybe I don’t want to listen to his apologies while he lies to my face. Maybe I’m sick of it.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“I found drugs in his pocket while I was washing clothes,” she reveals, snatching a dish towel from the counter. As she roughly dries her hands, I contemplate telling her that Pipe had caught him in the garage with cocaine but decide against it. Ain’t no use in adding wood to an already blazing fire.

Instead, I make a plan to pay Blackie a visit as soon as Reina is settled in our home. It’s time for me to make sense of everything once and for all.

“He swore he was done,” she says, throwing the towel across the room. “You know, this baby wasn’t an accident.”

Jesus fuck.

I don’t want to hear this.

“We were trying to get pregnant. We both wanted to start this next chapter of our lives. He told me he was ready that he was even excited about becoming a father.”

“I get the picture,” I grunt, muttering a curse. Lacey rolls her eyes and nudges my chest.

“Oh, cut it out, will you? I’m not mother Mary. This wasn’t the immaculate conception.”

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